Lucid lines bob to the top of playfully muddled poetry. Feist is concerned that lies divide us (“I Feel It All”) and apologies are too slow to come (“So Sorry”). Sung over a clapping backbeat, the line “Woman dressed in white, marry the man and you’ll spend a long sweet life” sees beautiful potential in a healthy marriage (“Sealion”). While reflecting on the ups and downs of past relationships, the singer notes that “a love is not complete with only heat” (“Intuition”). Paging through memories of young love, “1234” seems to mourn the loss of that innocence and simplicity.
A woman compares a toxic relationship to a mixed drink she can’t give up, one that “always gets me into trouble” (“Brandy Alexander”). It’s unclear, but a woman in red seems to represent an illicit affair (“Sealion”). A “wrong becomes a right” on “Past in Present.” And the album’s art (partially obscured here) is sexually suggestive.
Leslie Feist’s abstract poetry has a giddy, jangly feel. With relatively minor lyrical issues (hazy at that), it wriggles around in an eclectic bed of folk-pop that may provide common musical ground for parents and teens.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
